All grown up!

When I was ten years old my mom was going to have a baby. I had really been an only child my entire life so this is going to be a different situation entirely. My other two sisters didn't live with us and so we only saw them on some weekends.

I watched my mom's tummy grow larger and larger as the days passed. She would come home from work with a watermelon and eat the entire heart out of the thing leaving the other parts for the rest of us. It was summertime and this baby was due to be born in September.

Now, my birthday is in September and even though I was thrilled to have a sibling I did not, I repeat, did not want to share my birthday. That was MY day. That baby better be born either before or after, but not on My day. A week before My day we thought the baby was coming, but nope it was a false alarm. We were sent home from the hospital. My birthday came and went, still no baby. I was wondering if the baby would ever come.

Then, one Thursday morning, September 27th to be exact, at 1:30 a.m. I was told it is time to get up. We have to go to the hospital, the baby is coming, NOW! I got dressed in a pair of jeans and a gray crew neck sweater.

My Grandma (I'm still the favorite) was there to meet us and she and I sat in the waiting room of the hospital. There is another woman there too. Her daughter is having her first baby. My father had come out, only once, to say everything is going OK. He looked tense though. He must have been nervous. The other lady's son-in-law comes out and tells us that his wife is fine, but there is this lady back there and she is screaming her lungs out. My grandma and I just kind of looked at each other with big eyes. The other lady said to him, "These two are expecting a baby to be born too, this little girl's mommy is back there in delivery right now." The man then quickly says that it probably isn't my mommy screaming. Well, it was.

A very short time later (around 4:45 a.m.) we were paged by the hospital to come to the labor and delivery hallway. We got up, told the other lady good luck and rushed to labor and delivery. The first thing I see was my mom, without her glasses, squinting and holding a baby. My SISTER was born so quickly that there was no time for the epidural (screaming) and barely any time for the doctor to get into good catching position. She literally came flying out. She had a head full of dark black hair. Her little face was red and slightly cone-shaped and she wore a pink hat. She was beautiful. I can honestly say that I felt an enormous amount of love as soon as I saw her.

Today she turns 21, she's grown, almost a college graduate, owns a home, still beautiful inside and out, smart, and one of my most precious blessings.